TORONTO THE MEAN - Parking Tickets

In my preCanadian life, I had never gotten a parking ticket. Fourteen years of parking cars in several major metropolitan areas in North America and Europe = 0 tickets. Now that I live in Toronto and hardly ever drive, I have received six tickets in the span of three months. Two of them were just me forgetting to move the car, but the other four have had to do with Toronto's HORRIBLE parking signage. It's almost as if they want people to get parking tickets. I wonder why a city mired in millions of dollars of debt would want that?

In the past, I cursed and paid, but today I fight back. I parked on Eaton Ave after turning right off of the Danforth. Here are the signs that were posted within my vision and 200 metres of where I parked:I parked to the right of the sign on top, so I was not in the CLEARLY marked no parking zone. It was 9:40 AM. Note there are no signs saying anything about no parking between 6 PM and 10 AM. Because of Toronto's love of giving me tickets, I even drove around and rechecked. The only other sign I could see was about trucks not parking. I left the car confident that I was in a place I could park safely until 11 AM. Then I got back to the car at 10:20 and some guy was saying something about his Christmas gift from Toronto. Turns out, they gave me one too. I got a $30 ticket for parking without a valid permit.

And here's a sign on a DIFFERENT street with the no parking except permits for comparison:In this case, the time when not to park is clearly noted. I would never have parked here at 9:40 AM, because it is clear this is a permit only zone before 10 AM.

Hey Toronto, if you need money this bad, do it honestly by bilking all of your taxpayers. This kind of thing is why, when people ask me how I like Toronto, I pause and say it's just okay. Other reasons: too few bike lanes, expensive monthly public transit costs, poor lakefront urban planning, no good Mexican restaurants and the fact you can't get hamburgers cooked less than medium well. Look for these subjects and more in future Toronto the Mean posts.